YouTube Returns to Pakistan After Three-Year Ban

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YouTube Returns to Pakistan After Three-Year Ban

Three years since the Pakistani government blocked YouTube, following the release of the anti-Islamic film "Innocence of Muslims," the Middle Eastern country is relaunching the video platform, albeit with some caveats.

The new version will be heavily monitored by the Pakistani government, who will be able to request that any content they deem offensive be censored, Reuters reports. It's not the first of these arrangements YouTube has made abroad, but it does represent a kind of moral conflict for YouTube's parent company Google.

As the world's biggest search engine, Google's mission has always been to put the world's knowledge at our fingertips. And yet, as the company looks to solidify its presence overseas, it's finding that not all knowledge is welcome in all places. The video "Innocence of Muslims," which led to riots and political upheaval in several Muslim countries, spurred the ban of YouTube not only in Pakistan, but also in countries like Iran and Sudan.

The new version of YouTube in Pakistan will allow the government to request that certain content be taken down. That does not, however, guarantee it will be taken down. In a statement to Reuters, a YouTube representative said the company will review each request to ensure the material is, in fact, banned under that country's laws.

"We have clear community guidelines, and when videos violate those rules, we remove them," the company told Reuters. "Where we have launched YouTube locally and we are notified that a video is illegal in that country, we may restrict access to it after a thorough review."

Censorship online is always uncomfortable territory for Silicon Valley tech companies, which pride themselves on being outlets for freedom of expression. And yet, as their global footprint grows, these companies are increasingly being asked to grapple not only with censorship abroad, but also with concerns about terrorism at home, both of which require them to be the gatekeepers of free speech.